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Chapter 64: Choicelessness Is Bliss

Let no-resistance be your motto: I will not resist life. Whatsoever life gives to me, I will be ready to take it, available, and I will enjoy it. The nights are also good and beautiful, and suffering has a beauty of its own. No happiness can have that beauty. Darkness has its own beauty; day has its own beauty. There is no comparison and there is no choice. Both have their own dimensions to work in.

The moment this consciousness arises in you, you will not choose. You will be just a witness, and you will enjoy - this choicelessness will become bliss. This choicelessness will become bliss. Bliss is not contrary to suffering; bliss is a quality which you can bring to anything whatsoever - even to suffering.

A buddha cannot suffer, but that doesn’t mean that suffering doesn’t happen to him. Remember, suffering happens as much to Buddha as it happens to you, but he cannot suffer because he knows the art of enjoying it. He cannot suffer because he remains blissful. Even in suffering he remains festive, meditative, alive, enjoying, open, non-resistant. Suffering happens to him, but he is not touched. Suffering comes and goes, just like a breath coming in and going out. He remains himself. The suffering cannot push him aside. The suffering cannot push him off his feet. Nothing can push him - neither suffering nor happiness. You exist like a pendulum: everything pushes you - everything. You cannot even be really happy, because happiness will also kill you. You get so involved in it.

I remember, once it happened that a poor schoolmaster - very old, poor, retired - won a lottery. The wife was afraid and she thought, “This is going to be too much for the old man. Five thousand dollars is too much for him. Even a five dollar note gives him so much happiness, so five thousand dollars may kill him.”

She ran to the church, to the nearby church, and went to the priest and told him what had happened. She said, “The old man is out, but he is just coming back, this is his time to return, so do something. Five thousand dollars - just the news will kill him!”

The priest said, “Don’t be afraid. I know the human mind and the way it functions. I know the psychology. I will come.”

So the priest came to the house. The moment they arrived the old man also arrived, so the priest started. He said, “Suppose you won a lottery of five thousand dollars - what would you do?”

The old man thought about it, pondered over it, and he said, “I would give half of the money to the church.”

The priest fell down dead. It was too much.

Even happiness will kill you, because you get so involved. You cannot remain out of anything. Suffering or happiness, whatsoever comes to your door, you get so involved in it you are just pushed off your feet. You are no more there. Just a breeze comes in the house and you are no more there.

What I am saying is that if you don’t choose, if you remain alert and aware that this is how life is - days and nights come and go, suffering and happiness - you just witness. There is no clinging to happiness, no hankering for happiness, and no escape from suffering. You remain in yourself - centered, rooted. This is what bliss is.